Sand Creek Cross Country 6K Results

2016 Sand Creek XC Championship

May 21, 2016
By Dan Shaw

A month before the race, co-director Rob Fisher called with the bad
news. Kate from the Sand Creek Greenway Authority had called to say Denver
Parks & Rec. had assumed control of the portion of the greenway we were
planning to use for our race course. What did that mean for the race?
After a couple of weeks' discussion with the permitting office, in
addition to permit applications, submission of race plans and a meeting
with park rangers to review the course, we were suddenly looking at $600
in permitting fees.

Weighing these factors against the disruption of a last minute change in
location, the choice was plainly in favor of a move. Just a few hundred
yards upstream on the creek, the very accommodating management of the
Bluff Lake Nature Center graciously consented to permit our race,
charging us a fraction of the fees that the city wanted to impose.
The move was on.

And well worth the effort involved to change. A new course, still
consisting of 2 circuits of a 3K loop, was quickly laid out, following
a similar route to prior races the club has held at Bluff Lake. As a
result of the move, the race course now circled the little lake on
well-maintained gravel paths, with some beautiful single track along the
creek and a few hundred yards of rough open space featuring fallen trees,
a prairie dog town and small patches of sand. Quite a delightful little
course, decorated with the many greens of spring.

The weather on race day couldn't have been sweeter, with sunny morning
lows in the forties. By 9 o'clock, when the walkers were finishing,
the temperature was climbing into the sixties. Since this was the first
warm race day of the year, the water stop was popular.

And the racing was grand! Rachel Perez claimed the RRCA's Colorado State
Cross Country title with a time for the 6K distance of 25:49. Patrick
Richards took the title for the men with his time of 24:08. The Masters
(age 40+) titles went to Sydney Ayers (27:44) and Eric Albright
(24:48). Karen McKean (38:05) brought home the Grand Masters (50+)
award, and Keith Johnson (25:44) took the men's award. For the Senior
Grand Masters (60+), the champions are Janet Sandoval (38:34) and Bob
Caillouette (30:38).

Many thanks to the members who volunteered their time to make this
race happen, including: Patty Jones, Nicole Shaklee and Kevin Snyder
(registration); Joe Baird (timing, scoring and equipment); Amy Lease,
Matt Barnes and Bill Faulkner (timing and scoring); course marshals Pat
Tolleson and Lu Shaw; Tom Chambers (awards); and Shannon Shaw (course
marshal, awards and the raffle). And a huge thanks is due to Bluff Lake
Nature Center for kindly hosting this event on such short notice.